“Life Vs Anti-Life” (k021)

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Posted in K100.

“Life Vs Anti-Life” is a 22-page Fourth World story by Jack Kirby from THE FOREVER PEOPLE #3 [1971], inked by Vincent Colletta.

Kirby opens “Life vs Anti-Life” this issue with a quote from Hitler, about how the members of his movement are uniform in both ideas and facial expression. This is an ideal sought by another minion of Darkseid, Glorious Godfrey (who was somewhat based on evangelist Billy Graham). Some great Kirby writing Godfrey’s extolling the virtues of “anti-life” in the service Darkseid and being a faceless “Justifier”. “The right to point the finger or the gun”.

One of those “Justifiers” attempts to kill the Forever People, who then use Mother Box to trace them back to their “revelation tent” lair. Meanwhile the “Justifiers” are on the loose, rounding up undesirables and burning libraries, painting offending stores with an “S” for scapegoat. The Forever People transform to the Infinity Man to destroy Godfrey’s equipment. Unfortunately, he runs into a more powerful force.

Darkseid is able to easily bring back the Forever People easily enough, and DeSaad knocks them out to take to his prison camp. There’s some interesting interplay between Darkseid and two of his chief minions at the end, with one of Darkseid’s classic lines, “when you cry out in your dreams — it is Darkseid that you see!”

The villains definitely have the best scenes in this issue, and it’s interesting to see how Kirby modified and interpreted things he saw around him to use in his fantasy setting.

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